802 president's BANQUET IN BIRMINGHAM. 
had given them the full benefit of his learning, of his great 
experience, and of his high social position. That gentleman’s pre¬ 
sidential year would ever be memorable in the annals of our body, 
for the presence of Royalty at the annual banquet at the Free¬ 
masons’ Hall in the metropolis. No doubt the Duke of Cambridge, 
in graciously coming amongst us, was actuated to some extent by 
his estimate of the importance of our profession, more especially in 
connection wdtli the artillery and cavalry of the great army so ably 
commanded by the Royal Duke; but it cannot be doubted, that the 
chief cause of the visit of the Duke of Cambridge was his desire to 
testify the high esteem in which he held the President, Mr. William 
Field. A scarcely less memorable event in the same year was the 
conversazione in Red Lion Square, where Mr. Field assembled to 
meet us a large number of those most famous in the Sciences, Lettres, 
and the Arts. He (the Chairman) could not hope entirely to follow, 
much less to rival such an example, but he had done his best; and 
not his least desire was, whilst endeavouring to worthily fill the 
presidential chair, to promote the social intercourse of his brethren 
in a manner deserving their unquestionable merits. He had much 
pleasure in proposing “ The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, 
and Mr. William Field.” 
Mr. Field, in acknowledging the toast, succinctly referred to those 
great changes in the profession of which he had been a witness, and 
gave expression to his implicit hopes for the future, provided the 
members of the corporation followed his friend the President in 
endeavouring to act up to the spirit of the charter. 
The Chairman, in proposing the next toast, said he had to ask them 
to drink success to the Veterinary Medical Societies of England. 
Their table that evening was honoured by the presence of the Pre¬ 
sidents of three of those bodies, and to prove the utility of unions 
of this kind he had only to bring to mind, what no doubt was fresh in 
the memory of many of them, the remembrance of the parent society 
that was in existence in their College days, when their indefatigable 
preceptor, Professor Morton, was its guiding star, and which, 
no doubt, had done much to provoke the thought of establishing 
these branches in later days. He (the Chairman) had had the privi¬ 
lege of being present at one of the meetings of the North of England 
Association at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and also at one at Man¬ 
chester, when Mr. Lawson brought before the members of the Lan¬ 
cashire Society his very able paper upon Tetanus ; and although the 
scientific facts elicited upon these occasions were of immense value, 
still the utility of these meetings extends further, by bringing 
together, in friendly intercourse, the members of a district, dispelling 
the little coolnesses that might otherwise exist, giving opportunities 
for consultation, business arrangements, and other details, that all 
tend to cement men together in one common cause. He hoped that 
a Midland Counties Association might be formed; not that it was 
needed in this town on the score of unity; for he thought that 
Birmingham rivalled any town in England for the kindly feeling of its 
practitioners. At that moment there were no less than six members 
out of the seven present, and the absentee had by letter expressed 
